Motor vehicles and particularly motor cars are a ubiquitous feature of modern society that is widely used to convey people and goods from one location to another. They provide people with an independence of mobility and travel that is desirable in a modern society. Vehicles are often parked in a parking zone that is a garage or parking bay when they are not being used. In many cases the parking zone opens onto a driveway which in turn leads to a road. Often the parking zone and driveway are not fenced off from an adjacent garden and they have open access to the land or garden around a house that is associated with the driveway. That is the garden opens onto the parking zone and driveway without any pedestrian barrier therebetween.
In these situations it is sometimes necessary to reverse the vehicle out of the parking zone along a driveway leading to an adjacent road. The vehicle is driven in reverse at low speed in reverse along the driveway to the street where it can be driven in the normal way. To reverse the vehicle the driver engages reverse gear, turns their head around and looks through the back window at the ground or support surface behind the vehicle. One problem is that the driver's view of the driveway behind the vehicle is very limited and they do not have a full and uninterrupted view of the vehicle's travel path. Accident statistics show that many motor vehicle accidents occur in this situation.
In one class of reversing accidents a driver will collide with an inanimate object such as a wall or post. While such accidents cause damage to physical objects which entail an economic cost they do not cause any human trauma. In another more problematic category of reversing accidents a driver will collide with a small child or small animal. The child or animal is usually positioned behind the vehicle and is not seen by the driver when they reverse the vehicle. If it is a young child, the child is often too young to be aware of the danger to them posed by the reversing vehicle. Consequently they usually do not take any avoiding action. Sometimes the driver does not see the child because they have limited vision through the rear window of the vehicle. Further some drivers find it awkward to turn around and look through the rear of the vehicle and sometimes do not even bother to do this. Yet further the driver might not thoroughly and carefully check that the area behind the vehicle is clear people before the vehicle starts reversing. Yet further sometimes driver simply start reversing and hope that anyone in the way will take avoiding action.
Applicant understands that reversing car accidents cause about 229 fatalities a year in the USA. They cause about 12 fatalities a year in Australia and about 4 fatalities a year in New Zealand. Jeanette Fennell, who is the founder and co-president of the non-profit foundation Kidsandcars.org, advises that about 50 children each week in the USA are the victims of reversing car accidents. Of these 48 children are treated in emergency rooms and 2 are killed. Further statistics show that children under the age of three years are those most likely to be the victims of reversing car accidents. Further where the children are not killed in these accidents they usually sustain severe head, chest or lower limb injuries. The statistics reveal that the driver of the reversing vehicle is usually driving very slowly when the accident occurs. Further the driver of the vehicle is usually a parent, family member or friend of the child that is run over which adds to the trauma caused by these accidents.
FIG. 1 of the drawings illustrates one example scenario in which a young child is seated on the ground playing with a toy just behind a motor vehicle that is about to reverse out of a driveway. The small child is seated on the ground close to the back of the vehicle and is centrally positioned with respect to the vehicle. This makes it virtually impossible for the driver to see the child from their position seated in the driver's seat of the vehicle even if they are diligent. Accordingly unless someone outside the vehicle alerts the driver to the presence of the small child, or the driver actually sees the child in this position prior to getting into the vehicle, there is a real risk of the child being run over by the reversing vehicle.
FIG. 2 of the drawings illustrates another example scenario in which a young child could be run over by a reversing vehicle. As shown in the drawings the child is riding a tricycle on a hard paved surface of a driveway just behind the vehicle. The child has a very low profile or height and is thus not easily visible to a driver of the reversing motor vehicle. The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the child on the tricycle is constantly moving about as distinct from being in a fixed position. Thus a driver may think the child is positioned outside of a reversing zone or travel path of the vehicle when they reverse the vehicle when that is not the case.
The applicant is aware of some prior art efforts that have been made to assist a driver of a motor vehicle to reduce the risk of a reversing accident occurring. One prior art attempt to address this problem involves the use of reversing cameras that are either integrated into a vehicle at the time of manufacture or supplied as an after-market product. The reversing cameras project a visual image of the reversing zone behind the vehicle. The reversing cameras are mounted on the rear of a vehicle and are operatively coupled to an LED screen that is mounted within the cabin of the motor vehicle in a position in which it is visible to the driver. Some screens are mounted on the dashboard while other screens have been mounted on the rear view mirrors. The idea is that the image of the area behind the vehicle can then be observed by a driver when they reverse the motor vehicle. These types of devices have been around for some time and can be retrofitted to existing vehicles. They are designed to assist a driver when parking their vehicle. Sonar parking sensors work by sending out sound pulses from sensors mounted in the rear of the vehicle. The sonar pulse bounces off an object and returns to the sensor and a CPU associated with the sensor measures the time taken for the sound wave to return to the sensor. This provides a measure of the distance of the object away from the sonar sensor and thereby the rear of the vehicle. When the calculated distance comes within a predetermined range then the CPU sends a signal to an alarm inside the cabin of the vehicle to alert the driver to the existence of an object within a range of the rear end of the vehicle. However in the Applicant's view this prior art product has not been very successful. Applicant is aware of a number of instances a motor vehicle equipped with reversing cameras and sonar parking sensors has run over a child. That is the cameras of the reversing zone and the image of the reversing zone displayed within the driver's cabin of the vehicle did not operate or intervene to prevent an accident. Yet further Applicant believes that sonar parking sensors are not very reliable and are often ignored by the driver and cannot be fitted to a vehicle that is used for towing a boat, trailer or caravan.
Applicant believes that one problem of this prior art system is that when a person is driving a vehicle in reverse their head is turned around and they are looking out of the rear window of the vehicle. Consequently they are not able to look at a display screen mounted on the dashboard because this would require their head to face forwards. The technique whereby a driver turns their head around is shown in FIG. 3 of the drawings.
Further if a driver is in a hurry when they reverse a car out of a parking bay or driveway, they may not take the time to carefully check the image on the screen generated by the reversing cameras before they start moving. Once they have started moving it is difficult to look at the screen on the dashboard when their head is turned around facing out of the back of the motor vehicle. Yet another problem identified by the Applicant is that drivers are often distracted by mobile phones, radio or music within the car and/or other passengers within the car and either cannot hear the parking sensor alarms or ignore the parking sensor alarms. In summary the prior systems described above rely solely and exclusively on the actions and behaviour and ability of the driver and they have been found to be wanting. Further these systems do not warn anybody outside of the vehicle of an imminent danger of a collision.
Clearly it would be advantageous if a contrivance and/or a method could be devised that was able to effectively reduce the number of reversing accidents involving small children. This would reduce the amount of road trauma including death and serious injury involving small children and would undoubtedly have a significant benefit to society. This is particularly the case when one recognizes that very often the children are run over by a close friend or parent.